After three years of intensive research, a French
government body, the Matteoli Commission, has
published a 3,300-page report on the wartime
persecution of French Jews not only by the Nazis, but by France's
collaborationist Vichy regime.

The picture is far from pretty. Of the 330,000 Jews in France
when the Wehrmacht invaded in 1940, more than 76,000 were
arrested (usually by French police) and deported to death camps.
Only 2,500 returned. And as the Matteoli report admits, it was
during this process of bureaucratic murder that at least $1.3 billion
worth of Jewish-owned assets were "Aryanized"  seized with
the enthusiastic assistance of countless numbers of upstanding
French citizens.

The plundered goods included shops, businesses, tens of
thousands of works of art and more than 80,000 bank accounts.
At least 38,000 apartments were seized and ransacked. It was a
gargantuan undertaking. "The spoliation of France's Jews," says
European Jewish Congress Director Serge Cwajgenbaum,
"touched everyone from the wealthiest Rothschild to the poorest
cobbler in the pletzel"  the old Jewish quarter of Paris.

So what happened to all this treasure after the liberation of 1944?
Large chunks simply became part of France's national coffers.

Now, France is finally admitting its role in the Holocaust and
planning to make some amends by using an estimated $350 million
in unclaimed assets to educate its young about the horrors of
ethnic hatred. After 55 years of stonewalling and denial, it is major
progress.

But while the French are busily patting themselves on the back, the
fact is the commission and a followup body have no clear plan to
compensate survivors and their heirs, including some in New York
who are suing to reclaim their parents' bank accounts. Nor have
countless vital documents been released regarding enormous
quantities of stolen stocks and bonds.

And while admitting culpability, the French still mainly point their
fingers at the Germans, when, in fact, the Vichy government
eagerly promulgated anti-Semitic laws on its own. French financial
institutions (including branches of such American banks as Chase
and Morgan) froze Jewish accounts even before the Nazis asked
them to. In the mind of Vichy France, the Jews were beneath the
law.

There was nothing new in this attitude. Jews first came to France
in Greek and Roman times. And while they played major roles in
the development of French culture, science, economy and
democracy, they were demonized for centuries by both church
and state.

No spot in all this beautiful land left them in peace for long. Even
here, in this medieval town of Uzes, where I spend much of my
time, history is stained. In the 13th century, for example, two local
Jews were falsely charged with the sacrificial murder of a child
whose blood they were said to have used for baking matzo  one
of the oldest anti-Semitic canards. Their arrest provoked a battle
between the local bishop and the lord of Uzes. The reason was
simple: The one with jurisdiction could confiscate the Jews'
property.

The French have a saying: The more things change, the more they
stay the same. The new report offers a chance for some real
change. Now it's up to the
French.

04/17/00: Pope's Healing Touch Helps Mideast Some 04/12/00: For Assad, Time's Running Out 03/22/00: Al Gore Leaves Voters Guessing on Foreign Policy03/02/00: GOP Candidates Offer Little New on Foreign Policy 02/23/00: The Forest That Haunts Austrian Politics01/26/00: Second look at Nazi loot 01/20/00: Foreign Policy: Do Candidates Even Have One? 01/03/00: Sudden Interest in WWII Justice Has Many Causes 05/20/99: Barak Can Deal From Strength 04/13/99: Is U.S. Right in Kosovo? Yes, We Can't Accept Genocide02/10/99: King Hussein Was Truly Gentle Man of Peace . . . 01/19/99: Europe's Really Worried Now 12/30/98: Despite Critics, Nazi Loot Hunt Is Right & Proper 12/21/98: To Beat Saddam, Sustain the Raids11/24/98: Iran's Meddling Is a New Danger for South Africa 11/05/98: Saddam's a ticking time bomb 10/29/98:
Pollard's Release
Is a Key to Peace Deal10/15/98:
Hawkish Sharon May
Bring Home the Dove of
Peace 10/07/98:
Flake of Araby Won't
Make Deal on Pan Am 103 8/25/98: Embarassed to be a journalist8/24/98: Clinton Sent Right Message With Those Missiles . . .8/17/98:
Fair Settlement
For Survivors of
the Holocaust 7/27/98: When hopes collide with reality7/22/98: A lesson about peace ...in Auschwitz7/15/98: What Hitler tried todestroy, the 'Net helped put back together 7/8/98: Love -- and leave -- thy neighbor4/9/98: The US Navy's two faced Pollard policy 4/2/98: A breakthrough in Lebanon? 3/30/98: Full rights for all Israelis? 2/27/98: America's Schindler1/30/98: A last chance for the Mideast?1/11/98: The Moment for Restitution Has Arrived